


Nightmare

by inkinmyheartandonthepage



Series: Irondad and Spiderson [16]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I Made Myself Cry, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Protective Pepper Potts, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 09:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14787968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkinmyheartandonthepage/pseuds/inkinmyheartandonthepage
Summary: Peter has a nightmare that he just can't shake.





	Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> I know I start off all my notes with this but - Thank you. You are all so wonderful readers and seriously without you guys this would have ended ages ago. Your prompts are all amazing and I am getting to them as soon as I can. 
> 
> Prompt from stormborn_88 on AO3: I thought of Peter staying at Tonys for the weekend (as usual), waking from a terrible nightmare, in which Tony died. So he runs to his bedroom to make sure he's ok, but only Pepper's there, who then tries to remember him that Tony is fine & just a night away for work. She calls Tony, who tries to calm him over the phone, but Peter doesn't quite believe anything, still to caught up in that dream. But Tony is already flying back home, so Peter can see him.
> 
> I know a few people have asked for Peter has a nightmare so I hope you all enjoy and I apologize for any mistakes.

 

_“Mr Stark?”_

_Peter’s voice echoed across Titan, bouncing off the carnage of what had once been a beautiful planet, clinging to nothing. He stumbled as he looked around, searching for something,_ anything.

 

_“T-Tony?”_

_He walked, legs heavy with exhaustion but his heart pumping so loudly in his chest he could feel it pulsing in his ears. He stumbled over the debris, sniffing loudly._

_“Tony?”_

_A strangled gurgle and Peter’s head snapped to the left. He moved quickly across the ground, falling to his knees, feeling it scrape at his skin but he didn’t care._

_“Dad?” Peter gasped._

_Tony’s head lolled to the side, eyes slightly vacant as he looked at Peter, his breath sounding wet in his mouth and lungs._

_“Dad? Are you okay? What’s wrong? Dad?”_

_“Kid,” Tony coughed, wet and ugly and_ so not good. _His head rolled back, away from Peter, and his eyes started to droop._

_“Dad? What-“ Peter started but cut himself off when he saw that Tony’s body’s was starting to disintegrate. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.” Peter’s hands hovered uselessly as Tony’s body started to fade into ash. Tears welled into his eyes, obscuring his vision and he blinked them away quickly so he could keep his eyes on his dad._

_Tony let out one last breath as the ash reached his heart and he stilled until he was nothing._

_“Dad?” Peter choked out, looking at his hands where they were coated in ash. “Dad?”_

_There was no answer, just the words echoing around Titan, a terrible, lonely sound._

_Peter sniffed and looked up, so completely alone. “Dad?”_

“Dad?” Peter choked out, sitting up in bed, clutching the hands so tightly in his knuckles were white.

 

Peter choked on his tears, his heart painfully in his chest as he looked around the room widely. He kicked off his sheets and vaulted off the bed.

  
“FRIDAY – lights,” Peter choked out.

 

The lights flicked on and Peter was running out of his room and down the familiar hallways of Tony’s home. He moved faster than he ever had and was throwing open the door with a crash.

 

The lights in Tony’s room flicked on and Peter looked around the room widely, chest heaving with each panicked breath that he took.

 

“Peter?” Pepper asked groggily, sitting up in the bed. The sheets pooled around her waist as she blinked against the sudden light. “Peter, honey? What’s wrong?”

 

“Dad? Where’s he is? Why isn’t he – where is dad?”

 

Pepper slipped out the bed and crossed to Peter, gently taking his hands in hers. “Tony’s in San Francisco, remember? He had a conference he had to go to. Last minute call.”

 

Peter shook his head. “No. No he-he isn’t- he’s not okay. I have to make sure he’s okay.”

 

Pepper nodded, leading Peter to the bed and sitting him down. “Okay, okay let’s give him a call. FRIDAY, call Tony.”

 

“Where is he?” Peter whined, sniffing loudly and blinking away the tears that kept on pulling.  

 

“Pep! Bit late for a midnight call don’t you think? Not that I’m complaining,” Tony’s voice filled the room, flirty and deep with the late hour.

 

“Tony,” Pepper said. “Peter a little worked up. Can you assure him that you’re okay?”

 

“Peter? What’s wrong?”

 

Peter shook his head and gripped Pepper’s hands tightly. “I don’t, I don’t see him. Where is he?”

 

“Peter? Kid you there? Can you hear me?” Tony asked.

 

Peter squeezed his eyes shut and sobbed. “Where is he? Pepper, what happened?”

 

“FRIDAY, put me on the TV,” Tony demanded.

 

Pepper cupped Peter face, her thumbs brushing away his tears as he sobbed. “Peter, honey. Can you look at me for a second?” She smiled as he looked up at her, still sniffing. “Good, that’s good. Look, Tony’s on the screen. It’s a live feed, I promise.” Gently she turned his head, crawling up beside him and hugging him around the back.

 

“Hey, Peter. What’s with all the tears?” Tony asked calmly. “Pepper give you some food poisoning?”

 

Peter sniffed. “NO! No. I- I can’t. No he died. I saw it. He died this isn’t. No this isn’t real. It’s not real.”

 

“Peter, I’m real kid. I promise,” Tony said. “It was just a dream. I promise it was just a nightmare.”

 

Peter shook his head vehemently. “NO! No, he lying.”

 

“Peter, I promise Tony is real,” Pepper soothed. “He right there.”

 

“I thought that. I thought that while I was _there_. I could hear him and I could see him but it wasn’t _real_. He’s gone. He’s-“ Peter broke off with ugly sobs.

 

“Tony, I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Pepper said, still stroking Peter’s curls as he sobbed, curling tighter into her embrace.

 

“Okay, I’m leaving now,” Tony said. “Try and get him to calm down I’ll be back as fast as I can.”

 

“Tony, it’s late,” Pepper said.

 

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll take the suit. Peter! Peter listen to me I’m okay and I’m coming home right now. I coming home,” Tony said loudly. “I’m not hanging up either.”

 

“Peter, Tony’s coming home,” Pepper tried to sooth. “He’s coming home now. It’s okay, shhhh, Peter breathe.”

 

Peter tried but it was so hard and Tony wasn’t _here_.

 

“Peter, can you hear me?” Tony voice filtered through the room. “I’m coming home.”

 

“No. No it’s a trick. I won’t let you do this again,” Peter clenched his teeth as he fought off his tears and the grief that was threatening to take complete hold.

 

“What do you mean, Peter?” Pepper asked gently.

 

“It’s a trick. It’s Thanos’s trick. He did it when I was there, in the stone,” Peter sniffed. “He played us. All of us and I _remember_. I remember what he did, how he killed us and I felt it all and I _remember_.”

 

“The stone,” Pepper swallowed. “Peter, you remember dying and being stuck in the soul stone?”

 

“Yes,” Peter sobbed. “he killed my dad. I want my dad. Where is he?”

 

“Shit. Shit Pepper I’m coming as fast as I can, I promise,” Tony voice filtered. “Peter, I love you. I’m okay. I’m alive. It’s not a trick I promise.”

 

“You said that before,” Peter sobbed. “You’re gone. He’s gone. Oh god, he’s gone.”

 

Peter couldn’t and his full weight collapsed into Pepper.

 

Hugging him tightly, Pepper held him tightly against her chest, her own tears slipping silently down her cheeks as Peter sobbed.

 

Peter clung to Pepper, mumbling over and over that it was a trick, that Tony was dead and that he was alone again.

 

“Thank god,” Pepper murmured sometime later.

 

“I got here as fast as I could,” Tony’s voice was closer now and a new set of hands were touching Peter.

 

“Pete, look at me kid. I’m here. Can you feel my hands on you? Do you feel that?” Tony asked.

 

Peter shook his head, clenching his eyes tighter. “It’s a trick,” he whispered.

 

“It’s not a trick. Pete. Open. Your. Eyes.”

 

Slowly and with a great hiccup Peter opened his eyes. He blinked away the tears, eyes puffy and swallow and stinging. There, crouched on the floor in his Black Sabbath T-shirt, looking pale and tired but _alive_ was his dad.

 

“Dad?” Peter whimpered.

 

“Yeah, I’m here buddy. See! I’m here and alive and it’s not a trick. It was all a nightmare, okay. Just a nightmare.”

 

Peter sobbed and fell forward out of Pepper’s grip and into Tony’s. He clutched the t-shirt tightly in his hands, fisting the material until his knuckles turned white.

 

Tony simply hugged him tightly, burying his face into Peter’s curls and breathing him in. When his legs started to cramp he stood, cradling Peter and moving so them so they were lying on the bed.

 

“Come here, Pep,” Tony called softly.

 

Pepper crawled onto the bed too, slipping behind Peter so that he was wrapped in a hug from both sides.

 

“I’m here. I’m alive. We’re alive,” Tony repeated into Peter’s hair while he slipped his fingers through his fiancés, holding them tightly.

 

“We’re here. We’re fine. We’re alive,” Pepper repeated.  

 

“Say it, Peter,” Tony said. “Say the words.”

 

“We’re here,” Peter hiccuped and sobbed. “We’re fine. We’re alive.”

 

“Good Peter. That’s really good,” Tony praised. “Again. Let’s keep going.”

 

They laid there, repeating the words over and over until the sun begun to rise and a new day begun.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy reading :)


End file.
